


Once Upon A Dream

by princey_pie



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Theatre, Crushes, Enemies to Lovers, Fluff and Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:21:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28372302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/princey_pie/pseuds/princey_pie
Summary: Roman does not have a crush and it’s definitely not ruining his life.
Relationships: Creativitwins - Relationship, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders/Deceit | Janus Sanders, Roceit
Comments: 2
Kudos: 27
Collections: Sanders Sides 2020 Gift Exchange, TSS Fanworks Collective





	Once Upon A Dream

“Two nerds sitting, sitting in a tree. K-”

“Will you shut it already?!” Roman shouted from their adjacent bathroom. He peeked in his head through the doorway, buttons on his shirt only halfway done, the bowtie hanging untied around his neck. “I’m trying to prepare myself here.”

Remus didn’t bother getting up from where he was sprawled upside down with his head hanging over the edge on Roman’s bed. Instead, he grinned lazily. “Nah, practicing your victory speech to impress your crush doesn’t count as preparation.”

Roman felt his cheeks flush. Damn his not easily contained blood vessels, he was an actor, he should have better hold over himself. “He is not my crush! He is my nemesis, my mortal foe, the Joker to my Batman, the-”

“The stick up your ass, yeah, yeah, gotcha,” Remus waved him off dismissively. “Just kiss or punch him, I don’t care but do something. I can’t follow you around with a camera forever.”

“You know,” Roman shouted as he went back to the bathroom to fix his hair for what felt like the 14th time that day, “crazy idea: Just don’t follow me around. Don’t you have some of the other gremlins to annoy? Like your actual kin.”

“We’re brothers,” Remus was still grinning as he bounced off the bed and leaned against the doorway. “and you’re deflecting the question, dear himbo of mine.”

“You’re adopted,” Roman glared at him in the mirror.

“We’re identical twins.”

“I’ll deny that with my dying breath!”

“Hmmmhmmm,” Remus hummed. “Just so you know-”

Roman perked up at that, noticing the sudden seriousness in the other's voice.

“- he probably likes you back.” Remus did barely get the sentence out before understanding bloomed on Roman’s face and a can of hairspray went flying in the general direction of his brother, now shrieking with laughter, as he easily dodged and fled the room, Roman hot on his heels.

“Remus, I swear to Odin, if you put this on your snapchat story again I-”

* * *

Half an hour later Roman was in the car and hoped no one could see the roughhousing he went through with Remus just before. Janus would never let him hear the end of it if he arrived at the theatre with so much of a hair out of place.

He groaned and dramatically flopped back in his seat.

Out of the corner of his overdramatically rolled up eyes, he could see his dad throwing him knowing side glances before the road called his attention again.

“Is that a school-stuff or a boy-problems sigh I'm hearing there?” 

Roman knew his dad well enough to see behind the nonchalant tone. “Neither,” he huffed. “It’s a I-hate-that-they-let-that-guy-in-the-theatre kind of sigh.”

“Remind me which one again?” Remy asked with a faux innocence that really worked with no one but his father.

“You know which one, dad. You follow Remus on snapchat.”

“Well, you got me there. Just try to not get us a lawsuit, ‘k?”

Offended Roman shot up straight in his seat. “I’m not gonna hurt him! I’m a prince, I have morals!”

His dad took a long sip of his thermo cup. “Fair enough, I meant more public indecency but good, you’re not immediately jumping to that. Yay parenting, point for me.”

“Dad! No! And you wonder why Remus is like that! You two are impossible!”

“Oh, yes, you’re suffering horribly,” Remy deadpanned. “But he had to get something from me since someone in this car took all the dramatics already,” he added with a smirk.

“Not my fault the rest of the world got no sense for style,” Roman grumbled.

Remy’s face went soft. “And we love you for it, champ. So if this boy won’t get you arrested then what’s the big deal?”

That brought Roman right back to steaming. “He’s just so ughhh-” his hands started gesturing wildly-” just when I see his stupid face with that stupid bowler hat that went out of fashion last century and that stupid half-smile he always has on his face even when he talks with that stupid smooth voice and how he’s always teasing me with his stupid comments. And the worst part- hey don’t laugh at me, I’m not finished- the worst part is that even his comments are so unbelievably extra, he couldn’t talk like a normal person to save his life and of course, everyone is swooning over him and it#s just not fair!”

He finished and looked over to his dad, just to see him obviously trying to suppress a laugh. “Roman, dear, I love you but even to me you sound like you got a venti-sized crush.”

“...this family is a nightmare,” Roman sank down in his seat, arms crossed over this letterman jacket.

“Obviously, but your father’s cooking is nice and I am currently driving you, so I’d say you’ll live.”

Roman couldn’t keep back a snort. Only a little while later, they pulled into the school parking lot. Roman opened the door to hop out, grabbed his bag, and waved as his dad drove off again. He entered the building and made his way through the dimly lit hallways to the theatre. Saturday rehearsals really made the otherwise busy school an eerie place but the theatre buzzed with energy and people already. Roman felt a grin creep on his face as he breathed in the smell of burnt dust, cheap makeup, and equally cheap pizza. It was one of his favorite things in the world.

“A simply splendid jacket you have there, Roman,” a voice sounded from behind him.

Roman turned only to see his least favorite thing in the world leaning against the wall next to the door: Janus Clay.

Roman raised his chin and held eye contact with that piercing green gaze. “Yes, it is. Thank you for noticing,” he said, words rolling off his tongue saccharine sweet. This at least got him a reaction. An uncertain flicker flitted across his face before he scowled again.

“I wasn’t trying to- ugh,” Janus huffed and stormed away to join the rest of the actors on stage. 

A sense of triumph spread in his chest and his steps had just a little more pep as he jumped onto the stage and stood in line with the others.

Thomas, who took over as director for this year, clapped his hands and drew the attention of the entire room. “Soo, I talked it over with the team-” from behind him the rest of the director’s crew waved- “and I have the list of casting right here.” He waved a piece of paper in the air. A hush fell over the room.

“This year we decided to change it up a bit. I know we’re doing Sleeping Beauty but we chopped a bit at the story and added a few new roles. The most important one is that there will be two princes this time, especially since most of our fantastic actresses here rather be Maleficent. So it’s my pleasure to announce as our Prince Phillip-” he paused and the entire room held their breath- “Roman Picani-”

Roman beamed and felt as if his entire heart swelled like a balloon to three times its size in his chest. He was made for this role!

“-and as our Prince Auroron Janus Clay!” The balloon shriveled up and left a gaping hole of dread. “Congratulations you two-”

“Absolutely not!” Janus and he had shouted at the same time.

“I won’t-”

“Not with him, he’s-”

“-how do expect me to-”

“-insufferable, have you heard him talk, no one-”

“Enough!” Thomas raised his hands. “You’re giving me a headache. The casting is set. If one of you has a problem with that, you’re welcome to leave and your understudy can take your place. Also no, sabotaging your counterpart so that you’d get the understudy is not an option and also illegal and I will kick you from my stage if I witness anything like it. I think it will save us a lot of drama throughout the year.``

“But-” Roman protested weakly. He felt like fainting, or definitely like taking a long nap after some pizza. “what about the kiss scene?”

“No buts,” Thomas said sternly. “If you have further protests you can discuss that with Logan.”

Logan behind him perked up from his clipboard at his name. “For the protocol, I highly protest that statement. I do not engage with tantrum throwers.”

Roman agreed. Fighting with Logan was not very high up on his list of fun activities.

“Besides, Roman, I’m sure you know how to kiss a guy,” Thomas said with a small smile that made Roman suspect that he did find this whole arrangement amusing.

“Oh, I’m not sure he does,” Janus' voice rang through the room.

“Of course, I do! I mean…” Roman felt his face heat up. Flustered, he sneered at his rival. “At least I can kiss better than you!”

Janus raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, really? Prove it.”

Roman by now must look like a ripe tomato. He stammered something incomprehensible. Janus’ wolfish grin grew. Roman had to fight the urge to grab him by his stupid collar and pin him against the wall and kiss him until that stupid grinning arrogance was wiped from his face.

Janus, of course, picked that moment to taunt him. “One could almost think you’re scared you’ll fall for me,” he purred. “But since I am clearly the superior actor among the two of us, I understand your fear. As soon as I’ll start to flirt you’d be unable to resist my charms.”

“Oh yeah, I’ll show you, you waking nightmare. because I will make you fall in love with me first. Then we’ll see how’s a better actor!” 

Roman was fuming but Janus only grinned as he bent over in a mocking bow. “Can’t wait to see it, my prince.”

* * *

Never before had Roman been so glad that rehearsals were mostly done in the order the scenes appeared in the script. It at least would buy him some time to plan what to do before they got to the more romantic parts. He stubbornly refused to muse about the kiss scene. It haunted his dreams enough as it was.

Still, the last few weeks had been a nightmare to his nerves. His patience was worn thin and the line on how much taunting from his rival he could take had been reached yesterday. It didn’t help that Remus’ new favorite song to sing to him every day was Once Upon A Dream. Leave it to his brother to find amusement in his misery.

At least, today was the first time they saw the costumes. Roman found his mood lifting considerably as he saw himself in the mirror. The red sash fit nicely with the white fabric of the prince uniform and the gold accents were a nice touch.

Confident, he strode out of the dressing room onto the main stage. It wasn’t empty as he expected but apparently, Thomas was practicing some songs with a few actors. He suppressed a groan when he recognized Once Upon A Dream. Then the choir quieted down and a new voice, deep and rich and just a little bit smokey, started to sing the refrain. Roman stopped dead in his tracks to listen in awe. Thomas was obscuring his view a bit but he could still see fluid arm movements occupying the singing. The indigo costume with the gold accents tied the impression of careful elegance together.

It was only when the singer turned around to face him at the end of the song that he recognized Janus in his costume. His jaw went slack and Roman could only blink in shock to try and cope that the, in all honesty, beautiful boy was the same he had nourished a rivalry with over the last few years. Still, he didn’t miss as the other choked on the last note upon seeing him.

Roman was the first to recover. “Has my glorious sight finally rendered you speechless?” He grinned like the cat that just got its cream. “Be careful or you’ll lose our little bet.” The wink he added at the end came as naturally as breathing.

“I-” Janus cleared his throat and Roman was sure he saw a faint blush paint his cheeks - “you do look nice.”

Roman faltered. He had expected the other to snark back. He mulled his words over but couldn’t find any sarcasm or hidden insult but couldn't find any.

“Thank you? I mean, uhm, the costume, it suits you too. Uh…”

Roman squirmed in his spot, painfully aware of all the eyes in the room being on them. The awkward silence stretched.

Janus was the one to break it but the usual amusement was gone from his voice, unusually vulnerable. “Thomas wanted to go over the scene with the first meeting today. The one in the woods?”

Roman nodded, not quite knowing where this was going.

“The scene takes two though. So, uh-” Janus extended a hand, a shy smile on his face- “will you be my prince?”

Roman took it.


End file.
